“Fun Home” Finds Itself at Oberlin

When Visiting Assistant Professor of Theater Katy Early ’16 had the opportunity to serve as faculty director for a theater production, she chose the musical adaptation of Fun Home, the 2006 graphic memoir written by Alison Bechdel ’81. 

There was so much enthusiasm for the production, which ended up as a student-driven theater department Winter Term project, that Early and her crew decided to double-cast the show.

“The excitement was there from the jump,” Early says. “It felt like a good connection between my interest and student interest. … [And] it’s been important to me to work on this [musical] with students.”

The enthusiasm makes sense. In 2007, the graphic novel won the GLAAD Media Award, the Stonewall Book Award, the Publishing-Triangle Judy Grahn Nonfiction Award, and the Lambda Literary Award. The 2015 Broadway musical, meanwhile, was nominated for 12 Tony Awards and took home five, including Best Musical. 

In both mediums, Fun Home, which tells the story of Bechdel’s coming of age and coming out with a strong focus on her relationship with her closeted father, has been praised for its nuanced exploration of queerness. As such, the show's complex architecture was the work of many hands. 

To inform the set and costume design, Early and the student cast and crew immersed themselves in Oberlin’s archives to find artifacts of queer life during Bechdel’s time as a student. 

“That task of archiving queer life is so important to the DNA of this show, and [is] what Alison Bechdel is doing with her life,” Early says.

Dallas Street ’26, who portrays Alison in the Maple Avenue cast, cites as inspiration a presentation by Lee Must ’25, who came to campus to present his research on the Oberlin queer archives to the cast and crew. .

Street says that the Fun Home production also has its own collaborative “masterdoc” in which cast and crew members contribute notes and research to collectively draw from. For example, he researched Bechdel’s old blog posts for the production. 

Costume design associate Calcifer Avins ’27, working under Associate Professor of Theater Chris Flaharty, drew inspiration from Oberlin archival photographs for their costume design for the character of Joan, Alison’s college girlfriend. 

Avins says they and Flaharty also heavily referenced the Fun Home graphic novel in their design, particularly in the way that Bechdel draws her family. “We’re seeing what kind of pants they wore,” says Avins, who is interested in pursuing a career in costume design. “What are the shapes of the collars? How does Alison differentiate herself from her brothers with her clothes?”